WSJ.com and the AP have first details on Call of Duty Elite, a premium online service that will be part of the multiplayer element in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the next installment in the military shooter series. This will involve a free element, as well as a paid service, though Activision is not clear on how much this will cost, with WSJ saying: "they expect the cost to be less than fees for comparable online-entertainment services, such as a $7.99-a-month Netflix Inc. movie subscription." There's a preview of this on Gamasutra where they say this is the aspect of the game being created by Beachhead, and explain more of what it is about: "Activision's presentation aimed to enforce that users who don't subscribe won't be excluded from game features -- the intention is to provide a service that players may want. 'There's been a lot of speculation that we were going to try to turn CoD into an MMO, or that we would charge for multiplayer, so we wanted to get that out out [sic] of the way right now. The out of the box experience for Call of Duty... remains the same. We made a commitment that we will not charge for multiplayer, and we're continuing with that commitment'." There's also a walkthrough trailer about this on GameTrailers (thanks Tumbler), explaining that this "works for Black Ops and beyond, Modern Warfare 3, and everything!"

Rumors of a paid Call of Duty first surfaced in late 2009, and not long after that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said customers were "clamoring" for such a service. Since then Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has predicted this move couple of times, though last summer Robert Bowling said: "Modern Warfare 2 subscription plan rumors going around. For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they." Here's a bit from the WSJ:

In an interview, Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said he isn't worried about pushback from gamers about the Call of Duty Elite fee because players will still be able to compete against each other online without subscribing to the service. While he is coy about many of the offerings that will be included in the service, Mr. Kotick said Call of Duty Elite, and the customer-service operation that will be needed to support it, wouldn't be possible if the service was free. "This is an enormous investment," he said.

"Call of Duty" is in a unique position to seek a monthly fee from customers. The game's previous installment, set during the Cold War and called "Call of Duty: Black Ops," was the best-selling game last year, with global retail sales of more than $1 billion during its first six weeks on shelves.

Verno wrote on Jun 1, 2011, 15:35:They have a plugin where if you hit another teammate, you take like 1 damage per hit so people are pretty careful. Same thing with flashing teammates. It's very chillax and no one takes it very seriously, just enough to enjoy yourself without being all "ALPHA DELTA BRAVO GOGOGOG" weird about it.

World at War is honestly much better than people give it credit for. Treyarch went all out for it too, dedicated servers, mod tools, etc. Some of the maps were brilliant. It had a shit SP campaign so a lot of people just wrote it off for some reason.

Treyarch has always done a pretty good job with that franchise, I think they started with COD3

They have a plugin where if you hit another teammate, you take like 1 damage per hit so people are pretty careful.

Reciprocal damage was always best for public servers, as there's no way to grief.Regular FF is fun on more regular servers where people are organized enough to kick and where people are calm enough to understand accidents happen.

Beamer wrote on Jun 1, 2011, 15:16:I never found that all that true with CoD, or I just have selective memory. There was some spawn dying but it never bugged me, and I appreciated that your spawn constantly rotated.Much worse for me was the short time I spent in MoH. You'd spawn next to someone on your team, and if a sniper was lining him up there you were. I had 3 consecutive 3 second lives before I turned it off.

I certainly experienced both things mentioned, every time I tried to play CoD:MW. The spawn rotating I think depended on the game mode as I experienced a really bad map design flaw on one map, which ultimately led me to giving up on trying CoD MP forever. An MG could prone in his own spawn, fire through a sliver between 2 containers right into the enemy spawn. So the guy just kept getting spawn kills over and over, then would repeatedly send bombs in just outside the spawn to kill those that managed to live through his random spray.

It wasn't fun, and summed up the abundantly bad level design in the CoD series.

They have a plugin where if you hit another teammate, you take like 1 damage per hit so people are pretty careful. Same thing with flashing teammates. It's very chillax and no one takes it very seriously, just enough to enjoy yourself without being all "ALPHA DELTA BRAVO GOGOGOG" weird about it.

World at War is honestly much better than people give it credit for. Treyarch went all out for it too, dedicated servers, mod tools, etc. Some of the maps were brilliant. It had a shit SP campaign so a lot of people just wrote it off for some reason.

Speaking of which if anyone is looking for a chill CS:S server to relax on, I found the Urban Assault servers to be pretty decent(no affiliation).

I'll check it out. Any have FF?

You're always a second away from some dude spawning nearby and raping you or hitting you from one a billion different firing angles in the oddly designed levels.

I never found that all that true with CoD, or I just have selective memory. There was some spawn dying but it never bugged me, and I appreciated that your spawn constantly rotated.Much worse for me was the short time I spent in MoH. You'd spawn next to someone on your team, and if a sniper was lining him up there you were. I had 3 consecutive 3 second lives before I turned it off.

World at War had some pretty fun maps though.

I may pick that up cheap. The CoD games don't drop in price fast enough for me, though, at least the Treyarch ones. I always end up picking something else up in the same price range that I want more.

Speaking of which if anyone is looking for a chill CS:S server to relax on, I found the Urban Assault servers to be pretty decent(no affiliation). They have a great mix of comedy/skill amongst the players. It's pretty sad that I am still playing Counter-Strike as my primary source of faux-tactical FPS games these days but the CoD games are too formulaic to have long lasting appeal and the sheer chaos of most modes means that its difficult for skill to really matter. You're always a second away from some dude spawning nearby and raping you or hitting you from one a billion different firing angles in the oddly designed levels. World at War had some pretty fun maps though.

If they are calling out the $7.99 price that means its going to be $7.50 or similar.

Sounds like what rockstar tried to do with rockstar social club, or what EA tried to do with the spore community, except those were free.

The stat tracking thing valve could do, they already track all that, they just don't offer you ways to process the info. They are adding video stuff to TF2 though.

If they don't make this required for multiplayer, its a smart business move. There's plenty of hardcore players who would rush to pay them money for stuff like this. Probably everyone in clans that compete would pay for this.

I would even consider paying valve a small monthly fee (say $5) if they offered this kinda stuff across all valve games. No way in heck am I paying for it for just 1 game though.

Verno wrote on Jun 1, 2011, 08:52:I don't know, I wouldn't call 500k units "indie" or unknown. It isn't what it used to be but it's not either of those things.

Yeah, I agree. I mean consider fallout 1 & 2. If I remember correctly, those 2 combined were less than 500k sales.

You clearly lack at comprehension and clearly have a problem with someone disliking a game you apparently swoon over. I played the mod up until they started adding tanks. I pre-ordered Ostfront and played it briefly when it came out. I didn't like it, wasnt for me...just like 90% of the other shooters out there.

That still has nothing to do with coming to the logical conclusion that the RO IP is not well known, outside hardcore gamer circles.

I don't know, I wouldn't call 500k units "indie" or unknown. It isn't what it used to be but it's not either of those things. I think it's more accurate to say that there isn't much overlap between the RO and Call of Duty demographics. The rest of this nonsense is a bunch of glorified last word stuff about a misunderstanding.

You clearly lack at comprehension and clearly have a problem with someone disliking a game you apparently swoon over. I played the mod up until they started adding tanks. I pre-ordered Ostfront and played it briefly when it came out. I didn't like it, wasnt for me...just like 90% of the other shooters out there.

That still has nothing to do with coming to the logical conclusion that the RO IP is not well known, outside hardcore gamer circles.

I don't know, I wouldn't call 500k units "indie" or unknown. It isn't what it used to be but it's not either of those things. I think it's more accurate to say that there isn't much overlap between the RO and Call of Duty demographics. The rest of this nonsense is a bunch of glorified last word stuff about a misunderstanding.

Mcboinkens wrote on Jun 1, 2011, 01:29:It looks pretty bleak, but at least paying for the service is optional. As long as "elite" payers don't get any actual advantage to the original content, I'm fine with it. If they group "Elites" together and just normal non-payers seperate through the matchmaking, then there really is no issue. They're just taking money from the rich or stupid.

In the end Activision will change ppl's minds by selling better weapons to all those on the Elite service and maybe other perks and so on, so all these cod idiots will think they "need" to be on this service. This is all Activision wants and that is your money and they will do what ever it takes to get it.

What annoys me is that they will sell something like a turret, something so special and spectacular that everyone will go WOW i want one of them, just to get them to buy the service. Activision doesn't give a shit about the community, all it cares about its how much more money can it get from its now huge community and high percentage of them are idiots.

Atleast Dice are trying to do something new by pushing the bounderies, that is why they get my money.

It looks pretty bleak, but at least paying for the service is optional. As long as "elite" payers don't get any actual advantage to the original content, I'm fine with it. If they group "Elites" together and just normal non-payers seperate through the matchmaking, then there really is no issue. They're just taking money from the rich or stupid.